Untraceable mutant case snaps HK’s 24-day streak

Hong Kong reported 10 imported cases and one untraceable local case today, ending the city's 24-day streak of zero local infection.

Health authorities said the 10 imported cases include eight from the UK and two from Indonesia and Russia respectively. Nine of them were found carrying the L452R mutant variant.

The untraceable local case involved the 41-year-old woman who worked as a cleaner at Bridal Tea House Hotel in Yau Ma Tei. She tested preliminary positive on June 30 and her specimen was confirmed carrying L452R variant yesterday.

However, she was tested negative for the virus twice after being admitted to the hospital, she also tested negative for antibodies, according to Chuang Shuk-kwan, head of the communicable disease branch of the Centre for Health Protection.

Chuang said the 41-year-old had cleaned a room of a patient who stayed at the hotel between June 20 and 27. The patient was admitted to the hospital on June 27 and later diagnosed. The room remained untouched until June 30 when the cleaner disinfected the room.

After cleaning the room, the woman underwent Covid testing at a mobile specimen collection station on Arthur Street in Yau Ma Tei around noon, where her specimen was found preliminary positive for the virus.

The Centre for Health Protection listed the case as an untraceable local infection. Health officials are still looking at the possibility that her specimen collected on Arthur Street is contaminated by the environment of that hotel room.

The woman’s colleagues will be sent to the quarantine center, while compulsory virus testing was ordered for staff members of Bridal Tea House Hotel.

The woman lives with two children and her husband at Port Centre in Aberdeen. She brought her kids for private tutorial lessons at Bayshore Apartments in Aberdeen on June 26, and played Mahjong with her friends at Aberdeen Centre Kong Fu Court on June 27. A total of 42 close contacts of this family will be sent to the quarantine center.

The two schools - Belilios Public School and King's College - her children attended will suspend classes until their test results came back.